Fishing Shiloh Pond in Franklin County, Maine

• Overview

  Shiloh Pond is set in Franklin County, Maine. Elevation runs to 1,293 feet. This is a pocket water of some 19 acres, and every part of it is reachable from the bank. Head to Kingfield, 4.5 miles away, for anything you forgot. Sherbrooke sits 86 miles out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. The nearest boundary is well away, so one set of rules covers the water.

• Where to Fish on Shiloh Pond

  We hold no survey for this water; read the slope of the shoreline instead. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. County-wide records name Atlantic salmon, brown trout, rainbow trout, brook trout and rainbow smelt. Some of the species recorded here are protected or tightly regulated, so check what may be targeted before you fish. On Shiloh Pond the quiet end is the one worth the extra effort.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The seasonal spread runs 12°F to 64°F. Four clear seasons, with a proper winter at one end. The lid usually goes in late April, which opens the strongest weeks of the year. Ice usually gives way near late April, and forms again about early December. Right after break-up, and again as the nights sharpen, is when to go. At Shiloh Pond the season follows that pattern closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  Who may fish here is not settled in anything we hold. Part of this sits inside or beside Shiloh Pond Community Forest, so read the notices. Largemouth respond to soft plastics tight to cover; go weedless where the growth is heavy. Look for a notice board at the entrance. A polite question at the farm gate opens more banks than anything else. Failing this one, try Tufts Pond, 1.2 miles away. Check the position on Shiloh Pond before loading the car.